World Cup - Paper Round: Hodgson ‘accused of huge error’

Roy Hodgson has been accused of a huge error ahead of England’s World Cup opener; Uruguay’s World Cup training camp infiltrated; and reaction from the day two of the World Cup - the main stories making headlines in this morning's newspapers.

: England's coach Roy Hodgson walks during a training session on the pitch of the Amazonia Arena in Manaus on June 13, 2014, ahead of the first match for the team in the 2014 FIFA World Cup (AFP)

Hodgson should have taken Terry: Tony Adams believes Roy Hodgson should have selected John Terry for the World Cup, reports the Daily Telegraph. The report claims that the decision not to take Terry is tantamount to a huge error, as Adams sees the Chelsea captain as “the most experienced and the best centre-half in the country.” Adams adds: “I don’t understand why Terry’s not out there. He’s 33, he started 34 of Chelsea’s 38 games [in the Premier League]. He’s not a man in decline but he’s a man who’s playing in one of the top clubs in the country. He also plays with Gary Cahill.”

Paper Round's view: John Terry led a half-hearted coup against former manager Fabio Capello at the last World Cup and then retired from international football after the FA opened disciplinary proceedings against him following his tirade against Anton Ferdinand. Terry was banned for four games after the FA found him guilty of racially abusing Ferdinand. Sometimes selection decisions go a little further than form and player ability – and that certainly seems to be the case with Terry.

Uruguay’s World Cup training camp infiltrated…by hordes of ants: Ants have been found in Uruguayan players’ bed, according to a report in the Guardian. The team’s goalkeeper, Fernando Muslera, posted a picture on Twitter of the ants but played down their significance. "It was funny more than anything else," he said. "But it was fine. They (hotel staff) came straight away and changed the sheets and we slept well.”

Paper Round's view: While the players themselves have played down this episode, any sort of disruption to an opponent’s build-up can only be a good thing for England. If problems such as this persist then it could end up with Uruguay having to move hotels – a nightmare situation for any team.

And this is how the nation's papers reacted to the second day of the 2014 World Cup – with Spain’s demolition at the hands of the Netherlands understandably dominating.

Ian Ladyman in the Daily Mail: Spain’s worst defeat since a 1963 reverse to Scotland, this was more than a setback. This was a humiliating, humbling capitulation, a defeat that asks as much about the mental fortitude of Vicente del Bosque’s team as it does their hapless defending. Some defeats in sport represent more than the loss of a solitary contest and this was one of them. This was a 7&6 in Ryder Cup singles, an Ashes defeat by an innings, a round one knockout in Vegas. Some teams would not recover from this. It remains to be seen if Spain can.

Sid Lowe in the Guardian: Spain’s game has been about control over the last six years but here they lost it. They were neither quick enough nor strong enough nor well enough organised to stop Holland. The control was lessened still further when Xabi Alonso was withdrawn. Nor did they keep the ball or create sufficient chances, despite getting the first goal early: the goal that usually comes as a guarantee, forcing the other side out. Here the goal, the thing they have most lacked, did not matter because they did not have the control that has always been at the heart of their identity. This was not just a defeat, it was a disaster. In the next few days, the questions will be relentless, forever coming at the Spanish. Much like the Dutch did here.

Jonathan Liew in the Telegraph: It was Carlos Bilardo, the coach of Argentina’s World Cup-winning side in 1986, who said that a team needed seven players defending and three players attacking. When those three are Arjen Robben, Wesley Sneijder and Robin van Persie, then you have a chance. But when you have none of either, as Spain appeared to do for long periods on Friday night, then you may be in trouble. The instinctive reaction to Spain’s biggest defeat for half a century is to draw the curtain on their gilded era. And to watch the distraught Spaniards streaming out of the Arena Fonte Nova was to witness fans who had experienced not just a defeat, not just a drubbing, but a violent rejection.

Mikey Stafford in the Independent: Even after this performance the Netherlands may still not be many people’s favourites to go all the way, but you can be sure their manager believes he has the ability to wring every last ounce of potential out of his relatively young squad.

Rory Smith in the Times: They just kept coming. Wave after wave, streaming forward, wanting more. Holland had already obliterated Spain, burning the world champions away in a pulsating frenzy of counterattacking. They were already 5-1 up. They had already made a statement, loud and clear. It was not enough, none of it. Louis van Gaal’s side wanted to twist the knife, to scorch the earth. They wanted to humiliate them. They said afterwards, of course, that it was not about revenge. Nobody in the Holland camp had so much as mentioned, as they prepared to meet the side that beat them in the World Cup final four years ago, what happened in Johannesburg. Nobody had looked to leverage the pain they felt after Andres Iniesta’s goal ended their dream; nobody had tried to play on the criticism they received for their robust approach in the game. This was about now, not then, they said.